One of the developers of the flopped Concord has taken to Reddit to address those who are skeptical about Bungie’s new shooter Marathon.
Multiplayer shooters don’t have it easy. The market is highly competitive and has already claimed several victims. Last year, Sony’s brand-new Concord was pulled after only two weeks.
Marathon, a new shooter, will be released soon. It is being developed by Bungie, the company behind genre giants Halo and Destiny. However, the first images of the extraction spectacle remind some of Sony’s failure last year. One of the former Concord developers does not want to leave it at that.
“Give Marathon a chance”
Former Firewalk Studios senior VFX artist Stephan Williams has spoken out on Reddit. He says he has been following the reactions to the coverage surrounding Marathon and asks the community to give the new shooter a chance.
Former Firewalk/Concord dev talks Marathon
byu/-MrSpug- inMarathon
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After reading the comments on Reddit, YouTube, and Twitch about Marathon being Concord 2.0, I just wanted to give a little insight into the feelings of a forty-year-old man who has dedicated a large part of his life to developing video games.
He is referring to the community’s reactions, for example under the Marathon trailer on YouTube
- “I never expected Concord to get a sequel so soon, but here it is” – @Retrofun69
- “This game looks like it’s going to make a Concordillion dollars” – @DmitryCee
- “Welcome back, Concord!” – @konodioda4692
In his post, Williams explains that he is aware of what a huge failure Concord was. The hero shooter failed to keep its players engaged. Seeing the project fail in this way was “heartbreaking” for the developer.
No one has it as bad as the people who put their time on the line in the hope of entertaining masses of gamers around the world. […]
Williams watched Bungie’s stream revealing the gameplay of Marathon with hope and anticipation. He admired them for taking a risk with the shooter and trying something new. At the end of the post, he addressed the community:
We didn’t get it right [with Concord]. Please don’t punish others for our mistakes. We’re all human beings trying to create something special, and Marathon is no exception. Be kind and stay cool, because video games are supposed to be fun.
In the comments below the Reddit post, the community is sympathetic. The appeal to see the people behind the studios has clearly borne fruit.
Concord was a bitter setback for Sony. Although the publisher enjoyed great success with the live service shooter Helldivers 2, it has not been able to replicate that success so far. Bungie has also been part of Sony since 2022 and is now releasing a new game for the first time in eight years.
Marathon is set to be a beginner-friendly extraction shooter in which dying is not punished as harshly as in other games of the genre. Whether that will be enough to acquire a player base of its own remains to be seen. Our shooter expert Phil has already formed an opinion of Marathon. If you want to know more, check out the box above.
